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2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

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Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

aparch said:
Wild fans: What have you heard about the Wild moving their AHL affiliate Houston Aeros to a new city? The Houston Rockets and the Toyota Center aren't too keen on keeping the Aeros as tenants, and since the Wild own a majority stake of the Wild, they have control of the franchise.

A couple rumored locations are Sioux Falls, SD; Fargo, ND; and latest in Duluth, MN.
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Sioux Falls is building a new rink of AHL size and oddly South Dakota draws pretty well for hockey games. Fargo's rink isn't really large enough. Duluth would be fun, but the market is probably too small, but who knows.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

Flashy Man said:
Sioux Falls is building a new rink of AHL size and oddly South Dakota draws pretty well for hockey games. Fargo's rink isn't really large enough. Duluth would be fun, but the market is probably too small, but who knows.
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With Scheel's arena only being 5,000 I don't see them moving there. Would Omaha be an option? Especially with UNO moving back on campus in a couple years. The Quest Center is pretty big but can the area handle a 3rd team?
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

cF[Authentic] said:
With Scheel's arena only being 5,000 I don't see them moving there. Would Omaha be an option? Especially with UNO moving back on campus in a couple years. The Quest Center is pretty big but can the area handle a 3rd team?
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They couldn't a few years ago when Calgary parked their affiliate in Omaha. The Ak-Sar-Ben Knights were relegated to the Omaha Civic Auditorium while UNO took the Qwest and the Lancers took over a new building.

After two years of poor attendance, Calgary moved the team from Omaha to Quad City. The Quad City Flames only lasted two years (again because of sh*tty attendance) before Calgary moved the team to Abbotsford. Abbotsford is having trouble selling tickets, unless the Chicago Wolves (and formerly the Manitoba Moose) come to town so the locals can see the Baby Canucks.

While the Calgary experiment is more of a trend with their sh*tty management of their own affiliate, I don't think anyone would want to try Omaha again unless there was a local investor with some deep, deep pockets. Potentially, Des Moines with the Wells Fargo Arena (former home to the AHL Iowa Stars) has always been linked to the Wild/Aeros because of the short drive up I-35.


Interesting to hear that there isn't much news. Seems affiliation moves are usually horrible kept secrets.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

Flashy Man said:
Sioux Falls is building a new rink of AHL size and oddly South Dakota draws pretty well for hockey games. Fargo's rink isn't really large enough. Duluth would be fun, but the market is probably too small, but who knows.
Click to expand...
Duluth would be too small and is probably already saturated with hockey. They have a junior hockey team that is struggling to even field enough players.

Newspaper said the latest rumor is a team in Des Moines...
 
Biddco said:
Duluth would be too small and is probably already saturated with hockey. They have a junior hockey team that is struggling to even field enough players.

Newspaper said the latest rumor is a team in Des Moines...
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think the best spot might be Green Bay. They get great attendance for juniors and it's an opportunity to expand marketing into a populous neighboring state.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

Flashy Man said:
Honestly, I think the best spot might be Green Bay. They get great attendance for juniors and it's an opportunity to expand marketing into a populous neighboring state.
Click to expand...
That is not a bad idea. Not sure how it works with creating or moving AHL teams, can someone explain? Would the Wild just move their affiliate to a new location or sign a new agreement with another AHL team?
 
Biddco said:
That is not a bad idea. Not sure how it works with creating or moving AHL teams, can someone explain? Would the Wild just move their affiliate to a new location or sign a new agreement with another AHL team?
Click to expand...

The Wild own their affiliate, so they would move them. Other teams shift affiliations, like Vancouver did.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

Biddco said:
That is not a bad idea. Not sure how it works with creating or moving AHL teams, can someone explain? Would the Wild just move their affiliate to a new location or sign a new agreement with another AHL team?
Click to expand...

Flashy Man said:
The Wild own their affiliate, so they would move them. Other teams shift affiliations, like Vancouver did.
Click to expand...
As Flashy pointed out, some teams own their AHL affiliation. Other AHL teams are independently owned and affiliate with NHL teams.

From what I could find, these NHL teams own their AHL affiliate outright:
Toronto AHL (Toronto), Manchester (LA Kings), Worcester (San Jose), Hartford (NY Rangers), Wilks-Barre/Scranton (Pittsburgh), Rochester (Buffalo), St John's (Winnipeg), Albany (New Jersey), Houston (Minnesota), OKC (Edmonton), Peoria (St. Louis), Abbotsford (Calgary), Bridgeport (NY Islanders), Hamilton (Montreal)
Those NHL teams could up and move their AHL affiliates wherever they wanted. Edmonton, during the lockout of 04-05, moved their AHL affiliate from Toronto (the Road Runners) to Edmonton to play, then when the lockout ended, they made their affiliate go dormant until the Barons were formed in Oklahoma.

The other AHL teams are owned by local ownership groups and are independent from their NHL teams, except for affiliations. The NHL teams can swap and pick different teams to switch with (if available).


Some teams want to control the development of their talent (the fifteen teams above), and other teams prefer to be hands off with limited input and control of the farm club. Vancouver loved their affiliation with the independently owned Manitoba Moose. When the Moose bought the Thrashers, the Moose franchise was moved to St. Johns, and Vancouver needed a new affiliate. They chose to partner with the similarly operated Chicago Wolves.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

I would like to see them move the AHL affiliate to Indianapolis - large Midwestern City in the heart of Big Ten Country - it would help promote and encourage hockey there and help maybe push Indiana toward starting a team at a future date.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

aparch said:
They couldn't a few years ago when Calgary parked their affiliate in Omaha. The Ak-Sar-Ben Knights were relegated to the Omaha Civic Auditorium while UNO took the Qwest and the Lancers took over a new building.

After two years of poor attendance, Calgary moved the team from Omaha to Quad City. The Quad City Flames only lasted two years (again because of sh*tty attendance) before Calgary moved the team to Abbotsford. Abbotsford is having trouble selling tickets, unless the Chicago Wolves (and formerly the Manitoba Moose) come to town so the locals can see the Baby Canucks.

While the Calgary experiment is more of a trend with their sh*tty management of their own affiliate, I don't think anyone would want to try Omaha again unless there was a local investor with some deep, deep pockets. Potentially, Des Moines with the Wells Fargo Arena (former home to the AHL Iowa Stars) has always been linked to the Wild/Aeros because of the short drive up I-35.


Interesting to hear that there isn't much news. Seems affiliation moves are usually horrible kept secrets.
Click to expand...

In fairness, the local organization in Omaha basically screwed up their first year marketing and alienated the hockey-going public, then Calgary pulled out after year two just as attendance was starting to rise. If they'd been more patient I think it would've done ok.

I also don't see Des Moines being viable where Omaha isn't. Des Moines doesn't have the college team to compete with, but it's smaller than Omaha in terms of overall population and the number of hockey fans.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

For decades, the Wild has been a hockey team in Minnesota. For once, its starting to feel like a Minnesota hockey team.
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

To be honest, I wasn't missing the NHL at all. Was content to wait them out as I've got plenty of other hockey in my life.

LOVING having it back though.

GO HAWKS!
 
Re: 2012-13 NHL Thread. Fehr Thee Well??

the Wild Jets rivalry will be a good one as well. It was crazy last year when they visited, their fans were in town for a whole week and filled up half the X.
 
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